During the normal use of a riding board such as a snowboard or an in-line wheel-mounted land board, the user places his or her feet in fore and aft bindings which are immovably secured to the board. The bindings are disposed at an angle to the longitudinal centerline of the board so that of necessity the user must adopt a side-forward stance. For propulsion on relatively flat terrain, for example in, the vicinity of a chairlift loading area, the normal procedure is to disengage the rear foot from its binding and to use this foot to propel the board. Since the forward binding holds the users foot and ankle at an angle to the direction of travel, the user must compensate by twisting the forward knee and the upper body into a face forward stance in order to maintain a constant direction of travel. Further, while riding on the chairlift, the board is positioned at an awkward and tiring angle from the users forward foot.
In the prior art, applicant is aware of U.S. Pat. No. 6,102,430 which issued to Reynolds on May 7, 1998, for a Dual-Locking Automatic Positioning Interface for a Snowboard Binding. Reynolds teaches a boot binding frame 20 clamped between a retainer slip disk 26 positioned on an upper surface of a boot binding frame 20 and a swivel ring 28 positioned on a lower surface. The boot binding frame 20 is fixedly secured to swivel ring 28 for rotational movement therewith, while slip disk 26 is non-rotatively mounted to the snowboard 12. Thus swivel ring 28 and the boot binding frame 20 may be rotated relative to both snowboard 12 and slip disk 26. Rotation between the respective pieces is permitted by a disk receptacle or aperture 34 formed in boot binding frame 20. Since the boot binding frame requires a disk receptacle 34 of a substantial diameter, retrofitting of the Reynolds device to existing snowboard boot binding frames would have limited application and the most practicable application would be the purchase of new boot binding frames specifically designed to cooperate with his device. In the present invention the device is adapted for retrofit to existing binding frames as the components are located beneath the boot binding frame eliminating the need for an equivalent to the disk receptacle 34 of Reynolds, without precluding incorporation of the present invention with new binding frames.
Further, the locking mechanism 42 of Reynolds is detached from either slip disk 26 or swivel ring 28 and is separately mounted to snowboard 12. Within locking mechanism 42 a spring urges locking detent coupler lever 44 into engagement with swivel ring 28. To release lever 44 from engagement with the locking detents in swivel ring 28, lever 44 is rotated in a direction which is rotationally opposite to the direction of rotation of the boot binding frame 20 when the frame is rotated toward the walking forward orientation, that is, the so-called Reynolds' soft lock position. Thus, unlike in the present invention, the user kicking the lever to release the ride position lock does not thereby both unlock the swivel and apply angular momentum to the swivelling of the user's forward foot into the forward-walking position.
Further, unlike the present invention, operation of the locking mechanism 42 of Reynolds does not assist the user with repositioning of boot binding frame 20 according to the terrain or task at hand such as dismounting a lift or against increased resistance caused by snow and ice which may tend to clog the swivel mechanism during use. Further, Reynolds has locking positions, including the forward soft lock, which does not provide for the bi-directional range of rotational resistance of the forward-walking positions of the present invention.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a means for overcoming the difficulties encountered while trying to propel a board on relatively level terrain or in the vicinity of the chairlift boarding and dismount area or for use on a T-bar lift during boarding, dismount and transition.
A further object of this invention is to provide a swivel connector for securing the forward binding of a board so that the user may easily reposition his forward foot from a ride position to forward-walking positions.